


In Their Own Way

by NegativePersonality



Category: One Piece
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexual Relationship, Character Study, Luffy is asexual, M/M, Usopp is a coward, and the crew I promise, born to write fluff, funny story but I'm asexual too, pre and post Water 7, slow development
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 10:02:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15683172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NegativePersonality/pseuds/NegativePersonality
Summary: In which everyone knows that Luffy shows something more than friendship toward Usopp ... except Usopp (go figure)





	1. Early Days

**Author's Note:**

Relatively new to One Piece (just finished Thriller Bark)

and Luffy/Usopp is the first ship I've sailed in a loooong time

so pardon me if my fanfiction skills are a tad rusty

 

I'll try to post often at least

 

Comments / Suggestions / Requests always welcome!

 

 

 

**Chapter One: Early Days**

 

It was morning on the Merry, and the hammocks were empty.

There were either two people sleeping or none. Nobody knew exactly when it started, but nobody had stopped to question it either. If Usopp woke first, it was usually for food, so of course Luffy wasn’t far behind. But if Luffy woke first…

Usopp yawned and stretched. As a brave warrior of the sea, life was full of brushes with death, doom, and ultimate destruction. Being the exceptional soul that he was, it was only natural that he would be off to a great start from the moment he leapt out of bed. (Even if that great start meant praying frantically as he silently backed away, Zoro’s face mere inches from where he had landed.)

Usopp only managed to breathe again when the sleeping swordsman was a good few feet away. He tightened his fist and looked up in determination. With the first foul demon conquered, he set out to find Luffy.

He always started his search in the kitchen, because that was common sense. Even if Sanji managed to get a refrigerator with a lock on it someday, he would still check the kitchen first. Luffy had a tendency to work miracles where meat was involved. But there was no sign of him (or the carnage he would’ve left behind), so Usopp quietly made his way around the ship.

“Luffy?” he hissed, poking his head into the storage room. His eyes narrowed as he scanned the places Luffy might be hiding. When he was met with silence, he straightened. The bathroom door was open, so he couldn’t be there; and even brave warriors knew it was foolishness to enter the girls’ room unannounced. That confirmed it; there was only one other place he could be.

He climbed up to the deck and peered around the mast. Sure enough, there he was -- facing the horizon from the figurehead of the ship.

Without realizing it, a shadow of a smile had grown on Usopp’s face. Luffy, who normally couldn’t sit still for longer than five minutes at a time, could keep watch out there for hours without moving a muscle. It was a mystery well beyond Usopp’s understanding; but there were many things that didn’t make sense about Luffy. And things that didn’t make sense because Luffy was involved. For while Usopp could probably watch Luffy for as long as Luffy was willing to stay put, it seemed to stir a dull restlessness in his chest. He didn’t like that feeling, so he decided to climb the mast and settle into the crow’s nest, pulling out the supplies he needed to test the latest tabasco star.

He could still see Luffy out of the corner of his vision, but he tried not to focus on him too much. When Luffy finally disappeared below deck (and probably to the kitchen), Usopp stretched. He hadn’t even realized that his shoulders were tight.

 

* * *

 

“Gum-Gum…Bazooka!”

His arms whipped forward, and Luffy launched a small brown ball far beyond the ship. With a grin, he turned. “Usopp!”

“Roger!” Usopp replied, pulling his goggles over his eyes. He grew quiet with an intense focus as he aimed his slingshot.

“Lead star!”

He and Luffy watched without moving. Seconds later, a puff of yellow dust exploded far away.

“Awesome…!” Luffy gasped.

Usopp stood a little straighter. “Of course I am.”

“Do it again!”

“If you insist. I--”

“Nami swaaaan! I’ve prepared a delightful tiramisu, my love!”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Nami yelled.

“FOOD!” Luffy and Usopp cheered. Luffy pulled back his arm, and Sanji instinctively turned. “It’s not for you!” he snarled, moving to protect the plate.

“But I’m hungry…” Luffy pleaded.

“Then get some lunch from the kitchen. I heated the leftovers, they’re on the table.”

Usopp grinned and turned, but horror filled his face when he realized that Luffy was already gone.

“There better be something left when I get there!” he roared, racing toward the kitchen.

 

 

There was a slam, and Usopp stood in the doorway, gasping for breath. Luffy looked up and made a noise that would’ve been an invitation to join him had his mouth not been full.

A plate sat next to Luffy’s with a heaping of mushrooms. Usopp’s eyes narrowed.

“Sanji fixed more than…mushrooms, didn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

“Where is it?”

Luffy pointed to his stomach.

Usopp sobbed as he sat beside him. “Can I at least know what it was, so I can imagine it while I eat?”

“Meat,” Luffy answered simply.

“Of course,” he sighed. “What kind of meat was it?”

“Dunno.”

“And you ate it anyway!?”

Luffy laughed and let out a loud belch. Usopp groaned. It smelled like pork.

“Curses,” he muttered, stabbing the mushroom with his fork. He glared at it. “If I die, it’s your fault.”

“You’re so funny,” Luffy giggled.

“I’m glad it amuses you.”

Usopp gritted his teeth and began to eat the mushrooms one by one.

Luffy watched him with sudden interest. “Are you sick or something?”

“I never get sick!”

“But I thought you were excited to eat?”

“I was,” Usopp began, then sighed. “I just don’t like mushrooms. I…ate a poisoned one when I was a kid, alright?”

“Seriously?” Luffy snorted. “You’re an idiot!”

“I don’t want to hear that from you. You’ve never eaten a mushroom of death!”

“Only a brave warrior looks at something that tried to kill him and eats it anyway,” Luffy grinned.

Usopp paused for only a moment before eating another mushroom.

All of a sudden, Luffy stood and ran outside. “Zoro, where are you!? I’m hungry, help me catch a sea king!”

“There should be limitations to your thinking!” Usopp bellowed, but he knew they had ignored him. He didn’t even realize how quickly he had finished those mushrooms. Even as he washed his plate, the smile wouldn’t leave his face.


	2. All I'm Good For

Though it had been only a few days since they left Arlong Park and Cocoyashi village, Usopp was more than ready for Loguetown. He was in a sour mood because Luffy had wasted the last of his ammo (“I thought they were skipping stones…no wonder they sucked”) and he really didn’t feel like making more.

But there was nothing else to do, because Luffy and Zoro were asleep on the deck, Sanji was cooking lunch, and Nami was busy recreating the maps that had been destroyed in Arlong Park. Usopp couldn’t just do nothing, so he decided to fish a bit and see if he could catch a nice dinner.

But when he went below deck for his fishing rod, he instantly regretted it.

“Oh, no…no, no, NO _…oh_ man.  You have _got_ to be kidding me.”

He knew Luffy’s injuries had been serious, but there still shouldn’t be this much blood on the floor and walls. Used bandages cluttered the corners of the room, there were dirt and mud footprints from Zoro and Sanji after they helped Nami plant her tangerine trees, and Sanji must have been fooling around again because there was a hole punched in the wall between the men’s room and the women’s room (which Nami apparently noticed, because a barrel blocked the view to the other side).

“This is ridiculous,” he muttered as he climbed back up the mast. His plans for fishing thoroughly spoiled, he went to the storage room for rags and soap and spare lumber, grumbling just a bit louder than usual when he passed by Zoro and Luffy.

“I can’t believe they’d do this to you, Merry,” Usopp began as he mixed the soap and water. He doused the rag and began scrubbing the walls. “You work harder than any of us! After all, a ship is the heart of a pirate crew. Without you, we’d be just a common bunch of criminals.”

Well…maybe not entirely common. Nothing was common where Luffy was involved.

Usopp continued scrubbing, but his thoughts were wandering back to the fight at Arlong Park and the source of this mess. The more he thought about it, the more irritable he became. “I think your captain is a bit careless sometimes, Merry,” he snapped. “He says things like he can’t fight with swords, or cook, or navigate…or _lie_ like his crew?” He plunged the rag into the bucket and slapped it on the wall. “Why in the world would he need to lie anyway? When Luffy says he’ll do something, he does it, damnit. That’s how I know he’s going to be King of the…that idiot, did he wipe his nose on here or something!?”

It just didn’t make sense. Maybe, to Luffy, Usopp really was only as good as his lies.

He scrubbed at the wall even harder. It might’ve been true in the past, but he was a Straw Hat Pirate now, destined to become a brave warrior of the sea. Destiny was just…taking its time. But there was nothing to worry about. Usopp had the blood of a pirate flowing through his veins! Shouldn’t Luffy have more faith, like he did with Nami?

He stopped when he realized that the wall he was scrubbing had come clean long ago and quickly moved to the floor.

Usopp couldn’t do a lot of things, but at least he knew how to clean up after himself. Besides, how did they honestly expect him to fight when his arms and legs were shaking and he had a major bout of the I-can’t-fight-that-giant-fish-thing-by-myself disease?

He pouted, swirling circles of water on the floor with his rag. They should be more understanding. Usopp was a sniper; he was meant to fight his battles from the safety of at least 100 feet away. They were just expecting too much of him. Anything more than that, well…isn’t that what Zoro was for?

He could hear Sanji calling from the deck, but he wasn’t paying attention. “And this is what I’m good for. Cleaning up after those idiots. Damn, this blows.” He carefully dried the floor, then grabbed a few nails and positioned a plank over the hole. “Don’t worry. Even if they forget, I’ll always take good care of you, Merry,” he promised. “I’ll protect you from those numbskulls. After all, we’re the heart of the crew. They couldn’t survive without us, could they?”

He laughed to himself, and didn’t even notice that Sanji had been watching him. Lunch was ready, but it was clear that Usopp couldn’t care less right now. The cook only smiled, taking a long drag of his cigarette before heading back to the kitchen.

 

 


End file.
